And with his short statement, a remarkable era of footballing glamour drew to a close.

The 31-year-old sporting icon had hobbled from the field of play the day before and was still suffering the raw pain of his disappointment. A disappointment shared by millions of English men and women.

Yesterday he tried not to sob as he read from two hand-written pages of notepaper on which, in the hours after England's traumatic defeat against Portugal, he had scribbled his notice to quit.

'It has been an honour and privilege to captain our country and I wish to stress that I want to continue to play for England and to help both the new captain and Steve McClaren in any way I can,' he said.

He had hoped to make the announcement after lifting the World Cup. 'Sadly that wasn't to be,' he said. 'This decision has been the most difficult of my career to date but after discussing it with my family and the closest to me I feel the time is right.

'Our performance during this World Cup has not been enough to progress further and both myself and all the players regret that and are hurt more than people realise.'

He added: 'Finally, I have lived the dream. I am extremely proud to have worn the armband and been captain of England and for that I will always be grateful.'

As he rose to leave, his departure was met with a spontaneous round of applause from the assembled media. Moments earlier, his coach Sven Goran Eriksson had said his own farewells amid a flurry of apologies.

Perhaps sensing a mood of resentment that his £5million pay failed to yield the trophy which many had believed was possible, the usually sanguine Swede uttered the word 'sorry' no fewer than nine times.

Beckham's announcement served to draw some of the fire over what went wrong in Germany.

By tendering his resignation, he drew some of the heat off Wayne Rooney. Rooney, who was sent off for stamping on an opponent, might have feared the same fate as a young David Beckham who was vilified for his dismissal in the 1998 World Cup.

Rooney boarded a plane home last night looking grim-faced - but there was no sign of his fiancee Coleen McLoughlin. The couple travelled back to the UK on separate flights only hours apart. While Coleen got on a scheduled flight, Rooney boarded the official England plane to Stansted with his team-mates and their wives and girlfriends.

A spokesman for the couple denied there had been a bust-up between them after England were knocked out of the competition.

But it was not just the players going home. The wives and girlfriends - with even more luggage than when they arrived - checked out of the £1,000-a-night Brenner's Park Hotel yesterday.

They had looked as downhearted as the players on Saturday as they arrived back at the hotel after the match.

Yesterday, the players were criticised for failing to acknowledge about 200 fans who had waited patiently at Stansted Airport to welcome them home.